First original Class J version on the left and its second original version on the right

Given that the Class J starship was barely seen in the original version of the episode, when the

When the J class was introduced in Star Trek: Enterprise, it seemed possible that this was the writers tipping their hat to the ship class that was twice referenced in the original Star Trek. However the association was disproven when "Mudd's Women" was remastered and Mudd's ship was given a completely different from what was shown in Enterprise.

Slight variations were made in this design's three remastered appearances. In the case of the Denevan starship, the original class J model, albeit slightly scaled down, was a reused to represent that ship as well. In the case of Aurora the engines were slightly modified and new windows were added.

The studio model used in the original edition of "The Way to Eden" for the Aurora was a modification of one of the two Tholian starship studio models that previously appeared in "The Tholian Web", a necessity, as the studio was by then suffering from severe budget restrictions and simply had no funding left for new studio model builds. The modifications between the new design include the addition of warp nacelles to the model, taken from the AMT USS Enterprise model kit (no. S921 or S951), which were attached to the main body via nacelle pylons taken from the AMT D7-class model kit (no. S952), with the completed model finally being flown in "reverse".

When the remastered version of the Original Series came along, its Visual Effects Producer Michael Okuda decided to make use of the opportunity to retcon a new CGI starship design for those instances where a simple nondescript optical was used originally to represent a generic transport/freighter, or was not featured at all, yet emphatically referred to in onscreen visuals as was the case with the Denevan ship. As such the newly designed Class J CGI model was featured in the 2008 remastered episode versions; firstly in "Operation -- Annihilate!" as the Denevan starship, and subsequently in "Mudd's Women" as, what Okuda had called, "Mudd’s freighter". [2] In both these cases, care was taken to have the model only featured at a great distance and barely discernible, in order to stay as close as possible to the "feel" of the original episodes. In a mischievous nod to Harcourt Mudd, Okuda had intended to name his freighter Stella, the name of the wife Mudd was running from; "If we had seen the ship more clearly in remastered ep, I would have had the ship so labeled," stated Okuda, referring to the great distance Mudd's ship was featured. [3]

Jefferies' original shuttle design intent...

...its spiritual CGI descendant as constructed by CBS Digital...

...subsequently modified as the Aurora.

The model appeared for a final time in more detail in the remastered version of "The Way to Eden" as the Aurora freighter. Okuda, who actually had designed the vessel himself [4], confirmed that the CGI Aurora was a slight modification of the Class J CGI model, with larger engines and new windows. The registry NC-17740 on the nacelles, illegible on screen, was the tail number from Matt Jefferies' (brother to Set Designer John) 1935 Waco YOC biplane. [5] Additionally, the remastered CGI Aurora design shares a design lineage very similar to Jefferies' original 'teardrop' exterior design for a number of early "shuttlecraft/scout craft" sketches (featured in the Star Trek: The Original Series Sketchbook, pp. 86-87), which he, as Original Series art director and aeronautics expert, in effect had wanted all along in the first place. [6] And indeed, this actually corresponded with the script draft of 12 November 1968, where the Aurora (or rather Argo in that draft version) was described as "(...)small, rather like the Enterprise shuttlecraft." (Scenes 3 & 5, p. 2) Jefferies' "curved shape" designs were ultimately rejected for being "too expensive" to produce, in favor of the design that would be associated with the Class F shuttlecraft. (see Class F shuttlecraft model for further particulars) It was therefore Michael Okuda, an admirer and personal friend of Jefferies in later life, who at long last fulfilled, in part at least, the vision for the design Jefferies originally had.